What is wrong with Nigeria? Are our people allergic to progress and development? Do we actually abhor goodness and anything with any trace of the positive? Why do we struggle so hard to subvert, abort or destroy any person, group or movement that shows any signs of departing from the retrogressive norms that we have become so accustomed? Are we actually cursed?
When we had Chief Awolowo, they threw him into jail, and then waited until he was safely in the grave before declaring him “the best president Nigeria never had”. As a secondary school student, I recall watching General Obasanjo in a national television interview just before the 1979 elections actually telling Nigerian voters that they did not have to vote for the best candidate! When Murtala Muhammed showed signs that he was breaking with a developing pattern of drift and corruption, determined to move Nigeria down a more radical and progressive path, we quickly shot him dead after only six months! Very recently we saw how Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala was first removed from the finance ministry, and then from headship of the economic team in 2006 forcing the lady to bow out honourably before she was disgraced from office. That was her reward for getting Nigeria the landmark debt forgiveness deal from our creditors!
The latest example of the Nigerian abhorrence for progress is the strenuous efforts being made to rubbish the highly-acclaimed Lagos State Governor, Babatunde Raji Fashola (SAN). While the Governor was receiving an international award from the Martin Luther King Foundation in the US for outstanding leadership, some adversaries were putting finishing touches to a carefully scripted effort to impugn his reputation. It is increasingly difficult to dispel the view that powerful forces probably within the governor’s own Action Congress party are determined at the very least, to tarnish his reputation, possibly remove him from office through impeachment or forced resignation, and as a strategic objective ensure he does not run for a second term in 2011. If this absurd strategising is true, it will amount to a disrespect and disregard for the citizens and voters in Lagos!
We have observed the absurdity of a Speaker of the House of Assembly from the same party acting as if he was in effect leader of opposition to the Governor! While the media, citizens, professionals, and even opposition politicians acknowledge the Governor’s excellent performance, the speaker is constantly sniping at the governor, and recently complained about “praise singers” who were celebrating BRF’s administration. According to the speaker, Fashola is not the only performing governor as others were also doing well. Apparently the AC Speaker in Lagos is prepared to advertise Governors elected on the platform of opposing parties as a counterpoise to that of his own fellow party member? Absurd politics, I dare say!
Last week some people calling themselves “The True Face of Lagos” published allegations of financial impropriety against Fashola. Almost immediately, the House set up a committee to probe the allegations. Some newspaper reports suggest that the committee is the first stage of impeachment proceedings against Fashola! Now I do not support corruption and no allegations of corruption should be ignored. And I am sure Fashola and his administration is perfectly capable of defending itself against the specific allegations. But isn’t it incongruous that Fashola, by all standards the best-performing governor since the return to civil rule in 1999 is the only governor facing a trial for corruption by his state assembly? Of course we know it is all politics! The Speaker implies in his comments that the citizens and voters in Lagos do not matter-only members of the party do. That is why he constantly complains about people who are not members of their party who are praising the governor, as if only party members are entitled to comment about governance. May be he thinks the citizens exist only to vote and pay taxes so that the party members can live a worthy existence, and when we appreciate a governor who is making life better for Lagos residents, we are stepping beyond our bounds. Quite Absurd!!!
Fears that there is indeed some disaffection between the Governor and his predecessor, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu have been fuelled by the adverts placed by Dele Alake, Tinubu’s former Commissioner for Information and Strategy. Why was it necessary two and a half years after Tinubu left office to re-advertise his achievements while in office? And to do so on so many pages, in so many newspapers? What was the point? Some of us fear the AC in Lagos State may be preparing for a classic “unforced error” which should gladden the hearts of the PDP as we draw closer to 2011! Lagos voters may decide as all this unfolds that it is all politics; they don’t care about us; it is all about themselves, and their interests. And in politics, as in life, pride comes before a fall! That is how the AD/AC lost Ogun, Ondo, Oyo, Ekiti, Ondo and Osun. They got arrogant and over-confident and took the people and voters for granted, such that when the PDP stole their coveted offices, our people left them to fight for themselves. Now Lagos?
We pray that good sense will prevail and the AC in Lagos will reconcile themselves for the greater battle ahead in 2011 rather than dissipate the goodwill of the people of Lagos State.
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